In particular in the foodstuffs sector the various packages must ensure optimum protection for the product. Both with regard to the material selection and the design of the package, the package must here fulfil high requirements specific to the product charged. Perfect product quality must be guaranteed within the declared minimum shelf life. Apart from the microbiological preservability, which can be ensured by suitable methods, such as heating, aseptic filling and packing, as well as preservation, essentially the chemical or physical changes of the charged product, which can lead to aromatic changes, are also of essential concern. In particular, the permeation of substances, particularly such as oxygen, through the package and the subsequent modification of the composition of the charged product by these substances can influence the quality of the product in decisive ways.
Apart from material inspection tests and theoretical computational models, standard qualification tests, such as a product storage test in real time are available for the determination of the minimum shelf life. Here, the package to be investigated is filled and stored over the time period of the intended minimum shelf life under controlled conditions. This means however that an adequately reliable conclusion about the suitability of a package design for an existing product or, vice versa, a new product development for an existing type of package can only be made after the intended minimum shelf life has expired. The main disadvantage of this test method lies in this very long testing period of several months. Due to the increasingly larger variety of products, increasingly shorter product life cycles with at the same time a high expectancy on the part of the consumer with regard to product quality and reliability, within the competition amongst product suppliers there is the necessity of reducing the required development time.